Civil War adversaries won’t monopolise centre stage again

World of Politics with Harry McGee

The late political journalist Dick Walsh used a great anecdote in his book about Fianna Fáil published in the 1980s. He remembered talking in his native Co Clare to an old man who told him his family had been loyal Fianna Fáil supporters since the “old days”.

Walsh asked the old fellow did he mean the Civil War.

Not at all, replied the old fellow, informing the younger man that his family had supported Fianna Fáil since 1798.

It was the standout line from a mediocre book by Walsh – and a fine illustration of how deep and engrained the fealty of families was to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour in the past.

Many households in Ireland, urban and rural, were divided between those where either you could not say a word against Eamon de Valera, or you could not mention his name, or else there would be a conniption.

Until this Dáil, the 34th since the foundation of the State, you would hear politicians from other parties hammering on about ‘Civil War politics’ and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael being Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, in other words the same.

Now they have coalesced to share power, and if it was difficult to differentiate between them until now, it will become almost impossible by the time they emerge from government.

But I’d actually argue that civil war politics has been over for almost 30 years. The generation who came out of civil war had emotional and visceral ties to their political parties. The society that emerged was a traditional and a conservative one and what became the orthodox values were passed onto the next generation, almost without quibble.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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